Arthur P

dohcrxl, you've sighted in your bow on level ground, right? So, you've sighted in using the actual ground distance from you to the target. When you're up in a treestand, you are basically at the top of the vertical leg of a right triangle. The distance from the tree to the deer is the base leg of the triangle.

So, when you're ranging a deer from the treestand, you are measuring the distance of the hypoteneuse of the triangle, not the actual ground distance your tree is from the deer.

Say you're 30' up the tree (10 yards) and the deer is 10 yards from the tree. Using the ol' Pythagorean Theorum, a^2+b^2=c^2, the distance you would measure from your treestand to the deer would be a tad over 14 yards. But your ground distance is still 10 yards, so you shoot it like it's a flat 10 yards instead of a long 14.

That's one reason I don't use sights. I don't have time to break out the calculator and be doing geometry, trigonometry or advanced calculus before deciding how I want to aim.[8D]